The First Word: California

On this day – Controversy continues over the rolling blackouts and it’s sunny in Southern California.

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*It’s Always Sunny in Southern California*

“All these people want to know – Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego…” That line opened every episode of the classic PBS TV program and it seemed a fitting way to start this morning’s memo, considering the refrain (judging twitter responses to the news) would only need a slight revision for the news that broke early yesterday morning that Gov. Rick Perry was in Southern California.

“All these people want to know – Where in the World is Gov. Rick Perry…” It even has the proper number of syllables to make the whole thing work.

Perry Spokesman Mark Miner said that Perry had left the Lone Star State on Wednesday, which will probably be remembered as the day it was so cold that power plants failed and rolling blackouts swept the state, to promote Texas business and meet with America’s fighting forces before attending the celebration commemorating what would be Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday. Miner wouldn’t offer any more details on the trip except to say that Perry was spending last night aboard the USS Ronald Reagan.

Our crack team of investigative journalists decided to do what we could to piece together the governor’s activities from here in Austin. I made calls to the Los Angeles and Hollywood business communities and no one had heard anything about high level meetings between the Texas governor and leaders of LA industry, but they promised to get back to me if they did. Also, we attempted to figure out what, if any, military bases that the governor might be visiting, but our calls to the San Diego Naval base (one of the largest in the world) and Camp Pendleton also turned up nothing.

Still, the weather in Los Angeles and San Diego over the next few days is supposed to be spectacular – with highs in the upper 60’s and lows in the 50’s. It’s still freezing cold in Texas; but on the bright side, the blackouts have stopped.

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*The Sked*

– It’s a quiet day at the Capitol and that’s probably just as well. Did you hear it’s going to snow?

EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT

– I’m taking a break from the politics in Austin, to bring you this section on the crisis in Egypt. For my money, the coverage of the developing situation in Cairo (and throughout Egypt for that matter) in the Los Angeles Times has been second-to-none. This morning, please take a moment to look at the front page (pdf) and the late edition (pdf) of the LATimes.